A Lot Can Happen In A Year

So now all our cubs have reached that special 1 year milestone, welcome to the club Isaac 👋 I think it’s time we had a little reminisce and a look back through some of our adventures from the past year!

So, let’s start at the beginning!

November 12th 2015, 1 week later than expected, I said hello and happy birthday to 10lb 2oz of pure gorgeousness, My beautiful Tiny Tom.

Fast forward 3 weeks to December the 5th and Lauren and Craig were welcoming a new-born Elijah into the world, he weighed 7lb 8 and he was perfect. 😍

Into 2016 now and on the 12th of January Michaela and Ciaran finally got to meet this cheeky chap! Happy birthday Jonah. he weighed 8b 12oz.

A week later and little Zach flew into this world (literally, Catherine was only in established labour for 19 minutes!) on the 18th of January weighing 6lb 8oz.

Finally, last but not least, on the 16th of February 2016, weighing 8lb 4oz came the youngest of our 5 cubs. Isaac James!

And the squad was complete!

I can’t remember the exact details of how we all met. We were all members of the same parenting group on Facebook who arranged days out and playgroups for local mamas. We had seen each other at a few of these groups and because our boys were the same age just naturally started talking about the trials and tribulations of motherhood. I recognised Lauren from school, she was in the year below me and I’d never really spoken to her but apart from that none of us knew each other before we had our babies.

I remember going to a meet up at my local park, I didn’t really know anyone else and ended up talking to Michaela and Lauren. It was one of the first times I had to breastfeed outside of the house and I felt a lot less nervous about it when Michaela whipped her boobs out first! So thank you Michaela, bet you didn’t realize how much easier you made an awkward situation for me.

Me and Tom started going to a weekly baby group in the town centre called Mini Mates, that’s where we met Catherine and Zach. We have a few pictures from these groups and it makes my heart ache looking back at how small they all were then!

Lauren and Michaela quickly became best friends and it was obvious that Jonah and Elijah had a love/hate relationship, they were always ruining our photos by trying to rip each other’s ears off or bite each other’s cheeks! No seriously those two can’t keep their hands off each other, they have the sweetest bromance!

Me and Catherine got on well too and that meant Tom and Zach were forced to be mates, they probably hate each other, it’s hard to tell because these boys are so chilled. We both share a love of Instagram and buying baby clothes from small “instashops” so we spent a lot of time picking the perfect outfits for the boys and trying to get cute photos of them “twinning”.

It wasn’t until a bit later that Catherine introduced us all to Jess and Isaac at a playdate she hosted at her house, they lived nearby and I had seen Jess on Instagram. Isaac was hard to miss with his mass of gorgeous curls and his big chubby cheeks!

So that’s how we all met really, just sort of fell together, our little motley crew! We try our best to arrange as many playdates and days out as we can. It’s hard trying to find days when we’re all free and no one is at work. When we do manage to see each other it’s usually a bit stressful, it’s hard to keep track of 5 toddlers and enjoy a cuppa! Long gone are the days when we could lay the boys down in a circle and have a good chinwag!

Every now and again the stars align and we all manage to arrange babysitters/boyfriends to have the boys for a night, so we can have a few drinks and a good whinge to de-stress! When this happens it’s usually a messy affair that does not end prettily, imagine me and Lauren belting out Tenacious D as loud as possible at silly o’clock in the morning, or Catherine gyrating to Shakira. Yeah maybe not.

We’ve watched all 5 of the cubs turn 1 now, it’s been so emotional for each of us in turn, dealing with that fact that our babies are no longer babies, watching them learn new things and become more and more independent. You’re always so excited for that next milestone, crawling, walking, talking but when it finally comes you just want to stop time! Please for the love of god someone invent a Bernard’s watch!

Zach, Eli and Tom at toms messy play party

Elijah is 1

The boys enjoying themselves at Jonahs tea party

Isaac and Eli at Isaacs party

Happy 1st birthday Zach

So, like I said a lot can happen in a year! This time last year I never imagined I’d find myself with 4 brand new friends who I feel like I’ve known forever. Before this lot I hadn’t made a new friend for about 10 years, I definitely thought I was defective! You always hear people talking about how it takes a village to raise a child and how you need to get out find your tribe, all true! Mostly it’s just mint having people you can whine to without (much) judgement, or ask advice when you have a major pressing issue, or just bitch about Grandpa in My Pocket with! Cheers Girls! Here’s to the next year!